GLOBAL URBAN JUSTICE Cities increasingly base their local policies on human rights. Human rights cities promise to forge new alliances between urban actors and international organisations, to enable the translation of the abstract language of human rights to the local level and to develop new practices designed to bring about global urban justice. This book brings together academics and practitioners at the forefront of human rights cities and the right to the city movement to discuss their history and also the potential that human rights cities hold for global urban justice. barbara m. oomen holds a Chair in the Sociology of Rights at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She is also Dean of University College Roosevelt, a liberal arts and sciences college in Middelburg. martha f. davis is a professor at Northeastern University School of Law, where she co-directs the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy. She is also a Distinguished Chair of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at Lund University. michele grigolo is a lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. He is Co-Convenor of the Sociology of Rights Study Group of the British Sociological Association. in this web service
in this web service
GLOBAL URBAN JUSTICE The Rise of Human Rights Cities Edited by BARBARA M. OOMEN MARTHA F. DAVIS MICHELE GRIGOLO in this web service
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: /9781107147010 C 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of. First published 2016 A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data Oomen, Barbara, editor. Davis, Martha F., 1957 editor. Grigolo, Michele, editor. Global urban justice : the rise of human rights cities / edited by Barbara M. Oomen, Martha F. Davis and Michele Grigolo. Cambridge, United Kingdom :, 2016. Includes bibliographical references and index. LCCN 2016009599 ISBN 9781107147010 (hbk. : alk. paper) LCSH: Human rights. Urban policy. Local government. Cities and towns Political aspects. LCC JC571.G5834 2016 DDC 323.09173/2 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016009599 ISBN 978-1-107-14701-0 Hardback has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. in this web service
CONTENTS List of contributors Editors preface xi page vii 1 Introduction: the promise and challenges of human rights cities 1 barbara m. oomen part i Actors and their shifting capacities 2 Cities, human rights and accountability: the United States experience 23 martha f. davis 3 Making human rights the talk of the town: civil society and human rights cities, a case study of the Netherlands 44 esther van den berg 4 Human rights at a local level: the Montréal experience 64 benoît frate 5 From principles to practice: the role of US mayors in advancing human rights 81 joann kamuf ward part ii Renegotiating rights in the urban space 6 Human rights in the city and the right to the city: two different paradigms confronting urbanisation 103 eva garcía chueca 7 Defying the demand to go home : from human rights cities to the urbanisation of human rights 121 jonathan darling v in this web service
vi contents 8 Contested advocacy: negotiating between rights and reciprocity in Nima and Maamobi, Ghana 139 catherine buerger 9 The human right to water in the city context: insights from domestic litigation 157 natalya pestova part iii Implementing human rights cities 10 Human rights practice and the city: a case study of York (UK) 179 emily graham, paul gready, eric hoddy and rachel pennington 11 Human rights and the city: obligations, commitments and opportunities. Do human rights cities make a difference for citizens and authorities? Two cases studies on the freedom of expression 199 klaus starl 12 The right to the city in Mexico City: the Charter 220 ana maría sánchez rodríguez 13 In a state of becoming a human rights city: the case of Eugene, Oregon 237 kenneth j. neubeck part iv Conclusions 14 Human rights cities: challenges and possibilities 257 cynthia soohoo 15 Towards a sociology of the human rights city: focusing on practice 276 michele grigolo References 294 Index 323 in this web service
CONTRIBUTORS esther van den berg Esther van den Berg is a political scientist, working at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau SCP). She publishes on civil society, civic participation and local social policies. Between 2012 and 2014, she was the senior researcher in the Human Rights and the City project funded by Platform31 in the Netherlands. catherine buerger Catherine Buerger is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and the Editor of the Teaching Human Rights Database. Her research focuses on the relationship between participation in community-based human rights activities and political identity in Ghana. She wishes to thank the many individuals who welcomed her to their homes and shared their stories during her fieldwork as well as the editors and contributors of this book for their energy and insight. jonathan darling Jonathan Darling is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. He wishes to thank all those involved in the Dignity Not Destitution campaign in Manchester for offering him the chance to be involved in their work and is grateful to Catherine Buerger, JoAnn Kamuf Ward and Helen Wilson for their generous and insightful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. martha f. davis Martha F. Davis is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy at Northeastern University and Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian vii in this web service
viii list of contributors Law. She thanks Kelsey Morales, Katherine Terenzi, Jennifer Denker and Laurel Goldstein for research assistance, Jennifer True for administrative support and Dean Jeremy Paul for institutional support of her work on this project. benoît frate Benoît Frate is a Professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Tourism, School of Management, UniversitéduQuébec àmontréal (ESG UQAM) and member of the Quebec Bar. He wishes to thank the editors and contributors to this book, who provided very helpful comments and suggestions, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their funding. eva garcía chueca Eva García Chueca is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, where she is part of the ALICE project. She holds degrees in Law and in Human Rights and Democratisation, and coordinated the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) for many years. She wishes to thank the European Research Council for its funding. emily graham, paul gready, eric hoddy and rachel pennington Emily Graham currently works for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). Paul Gready is the Director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York. Eric Hoddy is a PhD student at the Centre for Applied Human Rights. Rachel Pennington, a barrister, holds an LLM in International Human Rights and Practice from the University of York. The authors wish to thank the members of the York Human Rights City Network and Network Coordinator Harkirit Boparai. michele grigolo Michele Grigolo is Lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute (Florence) and the European Master s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation. He is grateful to his partner as well as the many colleagues and friends who, in different ways, have helped him develop his ideas on human rights and cities. in this web service
list of contributors ix joann kamuf ward JoAnn Kamuf Ward is the Associate Director of the Human Rights in the US Project at Columbia Law School s Human Rights Institute and a lecturer in law. She would like to thank the many colleagues who continue to inspire her work and the students who provided valuable research, particularly Naz Ahmad and Doug Cantwell. She is especially grateful to Rusty Ward and Risa Kaufman for their continuous insight, guidance and support. kenneth j. neubeck Kenneth J. Neubeck is an emeritus professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and a member of the Eugene (Oregon) Human Rights Commission. He is active with the National Human Rights at Home campaign, serving on its State and Local Working Group. He is also the author of When Welfare Disappears: The Case for Economic Human Rights (Routledge, 2006). His more recent research has focused on the challenges of implementing human rights at the local level, a process he has been leading in Eugene. On the Eugene Human Rights Commission he has also been a strong advocate of the human right to housing and is working to end the criminalisation of homelessness at both the state and local levels. barbara m. oomen Barbara M. Oomen holds a chair in the Sociology of Rights at Utrecht University and is the Dean of University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, the Netherlands. She was the project leader of Human Rights and the City, an investigation into human rights cities in the Netherlands funded by Platform31 from 2012 to 2014. She is also a member of the research network The Global Challenge of Human Rights Integration: Towards a Users Perspective. natalya pestova Natalya Pestova recently completed a PhD (Law) on localising the right to drinking water at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. She is a coordinator of an NGO working to promote the realisation of human rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the West of Ireland, an immigration lawyer and an independent researcher. ana maría sánchez rodríguez Ana María Sánchez Rodríguez is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Ana María served as Director of in this web service
x list of contributors Social Liaison and Public Policy for the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City where she engaged in the Right to the City movement. She wishes to thank HIC-AL, particularly Lorena Zárate, and friends for their encouragement and valuable comments. cynthia soohoo Cynthia Soohoo is an associate professor of law and the Director of the Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at the City University of NewYorkSchoolofLaw.SheisgratefultoKatyNaples-Mitchellforher excellent research assistance. klaus starl Klaus Starl is a senior scholar at the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz, Austria, member of the Human Rights Council of Graz, scientific advisor of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism and consultant on the implementation of human rights at the local level for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, UNESCO and UNDP. in this web service
EDITORS PREFACE This book shows how cities, and those who live in them, increasingly claim a role in realising human rights and discusses the promises and challenges involved. The promises are compelling: with over half of the world s population living in cities, with large socio-economic challenges involved, respect for human rights by all urban stakeholders holds the potential for global urban justice. Cities are also well placed to infuse new energy into the somewhat faded ideals embodied by human rights by creating novel alliances, often across borders, which deliver upon the promises held by these rights. At the same time, challenges abound. How to move beyond the rhetoric? How to ensure equality between individuals and cities? What do these processes teach us about globalisation and human rights realisation in today s world and ultimately about global urban justice? In this volume, scholars and practitioners from all over the world engage with these topics. In doing so, they bring together a wealth of experience and insight on a topic that is rising on the policy agenda, but that has received relatively little academic attention to date. It is for this reason we were delighted that when we invited scholars and practitioners to present papers on human rights cities during the 2014 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, virtually everyone agreed to come. The presentations sparked in-depth discussions on comparisons amongst cases and amongst the ideologies embodied by human rights cities, human rights in the city and the right to the city movement and their theoretical relevance. The dialogue continued digitally as papers were turned into chapters and contributors reflected upon and responded to each other s work. As editors, we are deeply grateful to all authors for the degree to which they engaged with the key questions, the quality of the contributions and the timeliness with which they were handed in. The book would not have come about without the very able support of Anneloes Hoff, a scholar in her own right, who provided key editorial assistance throughout the process. In addition, the work benefitted xi in this web service
xii editors preface from the insightful comments of anonymous reviewers and the editorial assistance offered by the Press. The research that went into the book by Van den Berg, Neubeck and Oomen as well as the editorial support were funded by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office, more specifically the IAP The Global Challenge of Human Rights Integration: Towards a Users Perspective (www.hrintegration.be). Human rights cities, and emphasis on the right to the city, hold the potential to deliver justice worldwide in times and places where it is much needed, by the people and organisations best placed to do so. It is our sincere hope that the theoretical reflections, the legal and the sociological discussions and the practical examples in the book will contribute to strengthening these processes as well as the academic reflection upon them. It is, after all, only in acquiring meaning locally that human rights reveal their true potential for global justice. in this web service